Gordon Downey

Sir Gordon Stanley Downey KCB (26 April 1928 – 12 April 2022) was a British ombudsman who was the country's first Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

Life and career

Gordon Stanley Downey was born in Battersea, London on 26 April 1928.

The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards was set up by the House of Commons in 1995 as a result of recommendations made by the Committee on Standards in Public Life. He resigned shortly after Trial by Conspiracy by J Boyd Hunt was published in 1998, casting doubt on his report about Neil Hamilton and the cash-for-questions affair.

Downey was previously chairman of the investors' "watchdog", the Personal Investment Authority.

Downey died from cancer at a nursing home in Battersea, on 12 April 2022, at the age of 93.

References

  1. ↑ "Talking Politics – Neil Hamilton - A chronology". BBC News. 19 October 1998. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
  2. ↑ "Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards: Nomination of Candidate". House of Commons. 2002. Archived from the original on 14 October 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
  3. ↑ "Birthday's today". The Telegraph. 26 April 2012. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2014. Sir Gordon Downey, Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, 1995–98, 84
  4. 1 2 "Downey, Sir Gordon Stanley". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  5. ↑ Downey, Gordon (13 May 1994). "Flawed PIA nears moment of truth: Former chairman Sir Gordon Downey argues that a new agency would be preferable to the two-tier approach". The Independent. www.independent.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
  6. ↑ "Sir Gordon Downey obituary". The Times. 21 April 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022.